How much you earn from saving R10,000 with FNB, TymeBank, Standard Bank, Absa and more
Africanbank and FNB offer the best interest rates in South African savings accounts.
Saving is often a good way to ensure that South Africans can hedge their money against inflation and build wealth.
Interest rates on savings accounts are, however, linked to interest rates set by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).
Following a 15-year high repo rate of 8.25%, the SARB cut rates by a cumulative 50 basis points in 2024. An additional 75 basis points worth of cuts are expected for 2025. This will likely reduce the returns offered by savings accounts.
That said, most of the savings accounts offered by banks still offer returns that are greater than the latest inflation figure, which stood at 2.9% in November.
Fixed Deposit Account
Fixed deposit accounts often offer the highest monthly interest rates, but will not offer immediate access.
We have decided to look at the interest rates for 6 months and 12 months using Investec’s future value calculator. Interest is paid monthly.
Investec’s products were not used, as they require more than R10,000 in savings accounts. For instance, a fixed deposit with Investec requires an investment of R100,000.
When comparing the results at 9 of South Africa’s biggest banks over 12 months, Africanbank comes out on top, offering an annual interest rate of 9.25%.
Standard Bank is on the other end of the table and only offers 7.14% in interest over a 12-month period.
| Bank | Minimum Deposit | 6-month interest rate | 6-month future value | 12-month interest rate | 12-month future value |
| Africanbank | R500 | 8.5% | R10 432.60 | 9.25% | R10 965.24 |
| TymeBank | R0 | 8% | R10 406.73 | 9% | R10 938.07 |
| Discovery Bank | R10,000 | 8.00% | R10 406.73 | 8.10% | R10 840.76 |
| Absa | R1 000 | 7.85% | R 10 398.98 | 8.00% | R10 830.00 |
| Capitec | R10 000 | 7.70% | R 10 391.23 | 8.00% | R10 830.00 |
| RMB | R10 000 | 7.45% | R 10 378.33 | 7.95% | R10 824.62 |
| Nedbank | R5 000 | 7.70% | R 10 391.23 | 7.85% | R10 813.87 |
| FNB | R10 000 | 7.05% | R 10 357.72 | 7.55% | R10 781.68 |
| Standard Bank | R1 000 | 7.00% | R 10 355.14 | 7.14% | R10 737.84 |
Notice accounts
Despite offering lower interest rates than traditional fixed deposit accounts, notice accounts allow for access to funds if proper notice is given to the bank.
When looking at 32-day notice accounts that meet the R10,000 requirement, Africanbank came out on top again, with an interest rate of 8.0%. This was slightly ahead of Discovery Bank’s 7.95%.
Standard Bank was last again on the other end of the scale at 5.3%.
| Bank | Minimum Deposit | 32-day notice, nominal interest rate | 12-month future value |
| Africanbank | R500 | 8.0% | R10 830.00 |
| Discovery Bank | R0 | 7.95% | R10 824.62 |
| Capitec | R0 | 7.00% | R10 722.90 |
| Nedbank | R250 | 6.95% | R10 717.57 |
| Absa | R1 000 | 6.90% | R 10 700.53 |
| FNB | R5 000 | 6.75% | R10 696.28 |
| RMB | R5 000 | 6.75% | R10 696.28 |
| Standard Bank | R250 | 5.3% | R10 543.07 |
Immediately accessible savings accounts
Africanbank, however, was unable to take all three golds, with FNB offering the best interest rate for or immediately accessible savings accounts at 6.55%Africanbank came second at 6.44%.
Notably, Tymebank’s 6% could rise to 10% if a customer completes ten or more transactions for three consecutive months and gives TymeBank 10 days’ notice before closing their GoalSave account.
Capitec also spared Standard Bank from being the worst performer in all three categories, offering only 2.5% for immediately accessible savings.
| Bank | Minimum Deposit | Nominal interest rate | 12-month future value |
| FNB | R0 | 6.55% | R10 675.03 |
| Africanbank | R500 | 6.44%** | R10 663.35 |
| TymeBank | R1 000 | 6%* | R10 616.78 |
| Nedbank | R1 | 5.75% | R10 590.40 |
| Discovery | R0 | 5.25% | R10 537.82 |
| Standard Bank | R0 | 5.0% | R10 511.62 |
| Absa | R50 | 4.95% | R10 506.39 |
| Capitec | R30 | 2.50% | R10 252.88 |
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